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Monthly Archives: September 2014

Andrew Wakefield has tried to make a new career for himself as a film maker. He runs a website producing YouTube and Vimeo videos in which he describes himself as “director”. He also serves as presenter. He has finished his documentary on the murder of Alex Spourdalakis, even though his fundraiser fell well short of its goal (“$9,532USD RAISED OF $200,000 GOAL”).

If one follows the link above to the Mr. Wakefield’s Autism Media Channel, one will find a trailer for his “Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis” video. The narration talks about him being treated “in the words of witnesses…like an animal…” and at 26 seconds in one sees this image:

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An image from that same video is also seen at about 20 seconds into the trailer.

As one who has followed various stories in the autism community I know that video well. I know it is taken from a…

Immediate Press Release 19th September 2014

An Taisce calls for concerted action by everyone in the face abrupt global warming.

An Taisce is calling on the world’s leaders to agree and enforce a cap on global Cumulative Total Emissions at the UN summit in New York next week. Cumulative Total Emissions (CTE) are critical to climate action that ensures local and national efforts are not undermined anywhere or in the future.

The findings of the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC have changed the climate equation. There is now an overwhelming scientific consensus that:

· There is a direct linear connection between the total amount of CO2 emitted and the resulting increase in the global average temperature.

Professor Barry McMullin of An Taisce’s Climate Change Committee stated: “To control the global ‘thermostat’ cumulative global total emissions (CTE) must be cut rapidly to avoid dangerous risks of severe impacts. These include drastic food, water and energy shortages, sea level rise, major population movements, widespread species extinction and ecosystem collapse. Concerted action now will reduce risk.”

All sectors of society and all nations must engage in rapid and extensive emissions reductions based on a calculation that reflects their responsibility for the cumulative total. Given historic emissions and high consumption patterns, the wealthy developed countries must accept higher and more immediate burdens of reduction responsibility and cost. Affordable climate adaptation will be possible only if the least cost option, urgent mitigation, is achieved quickly.

Huge sums of money have been donated in recent weeks to motor neurone disease charities through the ice bucket challenge craze. Animal Aid is urging people to resist enriching these charities by dowsing themselves in iced water or challenging others to do so.

Instead, we are challenging the Motor Neurone Disease Association, the main beneficiary of the ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) ice bucket phenomenon in this country, to stop funding cruelly invasive animal tests. Such tests include those using genetically modified mice bred to suffer severe motor impairment and muscle weakness.

Experiments using GM mice and other animals can in no way adequately replicate the complexities of ALS in humans, which are significantly affected by specific genetic traits, such as those relating to ethnic and geographic variables.